What's New
Public comment meetings on the Draft Basin 17 Tactical Basin Plan have been scheduled for May 18th and 23rd. The Tactical Basin Plan will serve as the guidebook for water quality protection and restoration efforts in this basin for the next five years. The plan provides updates on water quality challenges in the Lake Memphremagog watershed, progress that has been made over the last five years improving waters for fishing, swimming, and boating, and includes targeted strategies on how we can improve these efforts over the next five years. A summary of the draft plan is covered in a StoryMap that can be viewed online and in the following summary document.
Public meetings will be held:
May 18th at 12:30 PM hosted by the Orleans Natural Resources Conservation District with follow up meeting of the local work group.
In person location: Prouty Beach Pavilion, 386 Prouty Beach Rd, Newport City, Vermont
Click here for the Virtual teams link or you can use a call in number +1 802-828-7667,,172530602# Phone Conference ID: 172 530 602#
May 23rd 6:30 PM hosted by the Memphremagog Watershed Association
In person location: Gateway Center, 84 Fife Drive, Newport City, Vermont
Click here for the Virtual teams link or you can use a call in number +1 802-828-7667,,512360100# Phone Conference ID: 512 360 100#
The Draft Plan has been posted for public comment through June 10th. Please submit your comments at one of the public meetings or by email at ben.copans@vermont.gov. Public comments can be submitted by mail to Ben Copans, Basin 17 Comments, 374 Emerson Falls Road, Suite 4, St. Johnsbury, VT 05819. State officials will respond to each comment in a summary written later this summer.
The process to update the Lake Memphremagog Tomifobia and Coaticook tactical basin plan was initiated in 2019 with a round of water quality monitoring and a year for assessing this date to determine conditions of waters across this watershed. In the summer and fall of 2021 partners across watershed provided updates to the 66 strategies that were identified in the 2017 plan showing that over 80% have been initiated or completed since this plan was published. The status and updates on these strategies is available at this link Basin 17 report card.
Basin 17 includes the Vermont portions of the St. Francis River Watershed encompassing a total of 589 square miles between the Lake Memphremagog drainage and the Tomifobia and Coaticook River watersheds. The Vermont portion of this basin includes the Black, Barton and Clyde Rivers and many lakes and ponds, including Great and Little Hosmer Lakes, Lake Parker, Shadow Lake, Crystal Lake, Lake Willoughby, lake Salem, Island Pond, Great and Little Averill Ponds, Norton Pond, Holland Pond and Seymour Lake.
Phosphorus Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and 2017 Tactical Basin Plan
Lake Memphremagog is shared with the province of Quebec, with a majority of the lake in Quebec, but a majority of the watershed in Vermont. Phosphorus levels in Lake Memphremagog are above the Vermont State Water Quality Standards. Excess phosphorus that runs off the land into the lake causes occasional cyanobacteria blooms and nuisance plant and algae growth, which limit the recreational use of the lake. The Total Maximum Daily Load or TMDL for Lake Memphremagog, developed using lake and watershed models and approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in September 2017, calls for a 29% reduction in phosphorus inputs.
The Lake Memphremagog, Coaticook and Tomifobia Tactical Basin Plan was approved in November of 2017. It identifies specific actions to reduce phosphorus and sediment pollution from farmland, roads, developed lands, wastewater treatment facilities, forest lands and wetlands, along with addressing water level fluctuations and aquatic invasive species spread over the next five years. It also outlines additional concerns in the basin, including two streams, Roaring Branch and an unnamed tributary to Stearns Brook that are impaired from nutrient runoff from farms; 13 additional lakes in the watershed with either elevated levels of phosphorus or increasing phosphorus trends; water level fluctuations on lakes and streams in the Coaticook watershed; and the spread of aquatic invasive species. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation adopted a new wastewater treatment facility wasteload allocation for facilities in the Lake Memphremagog watershed.
Learn about projects in your area, and view more than 350 specific actions for the Lake Memphremagog, Tomifobia and Coaticook Basin through the Watershed Projects Database. Select "Basin 17-Lake Memphremagog" and click on the “Search” button.
Visit the Restoring Lake Memphremagog webpage to learn more about the Lake Memphremagog TMDL and work of the Quebec Vermont Steering Committee on Lake Memphremagog.
Contact Ben Copans at 802-490-6413 with any questions about the TMDL or tactical basin plan.
Resources
- Lake Memphremagog Phosphorus Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)
- Lake Memphremagog TMDL Modeling Documentation
- Lake Memphremagog, Coaticook and Tomifobia 2017 Tactical Basin Plan
- Lake Memphremagog, Coaticook and Tomifobia Existing Uses
Additional Resources
- Review of Basin 17 Stream Geomorphic Assessments & Sediment Stressed Conditions in Stearns Brook, 2022.
- Lake Memphremagog Basin Assessment Report 2015
- Tactical Basin Planning
- Map of Vermont's 15 Major Drainage Basins
- Lake Memphremagog Watershed Water Quality Assessment Report (March 2006))
- Memphremagog Conservation Inc. (MCI)
- Northeastern Vermont Development Association (NVDA)
- Northwoods Stewardship Center
- 2008 Quebec-Vermont report on The Water quality of Lake Memphremagog
- Seymour Lakes Association
- Echo Lake Protective Association
- Memphremagog Watershed Association
- Orleans County Natural Resources Conservation District
- Proposed Watershed Projects for the Basin 17 Tactical Plan